It is “Part of this Larger Tapestry of Anti-queer Experiences”: LGBTQ+ Australians’ Experiences of Street Harassment

Abstract

AbstractMost research on street harassment has focused on the experiences of heterosexual, cisgender women, shaping our understandings of street harassment as a problem of sexism and men’s violence against women. In this article, we examine semi-structured interviews with 25 LGBTQ+ Australians who detailed their experiences of street harassment. We found that LGBTQ+ people experience unique forms, contexts, and trajectories of street harassment that a cisheteronormative gendered framework cannot fully account for. Homophobia, transphobia, and heterosexism are drivers that have been under-theorized in street harassment literature. Our findings reiterate the importance of moving beyond over-simplified understandings of gender-based violence and the need to analyze other intersecting forms of marginalization beyond binary conceptualizations of gender.